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London 2012: Canada’s women’s gymnastics team makes history with fifth-place finish

Canada, which had never even qualified for the Olympic team final before, delivered a historic performance Tuesday at the London Games, narrowly missing out on a medal.

Members of Canada's women's gymnastics team congratulate one another after their fifth-place finish in Tuesday's Olympic final. (STEVE RUSSELL / TORONTO STAR) | Order this photo

By Robyn DoolittleStaff Reporter

Tues., July 31, 2012

LONDON—When you think of the Olympic Games, placing fifth typically isn’t the kind of finish to incite joyful tears, fits of dancing and bouncing group hugs.

But for Canada’s women’s gymnastics team, top five was as good as gold here Tuesday. The five-woman squad delivered a stunning performance in a historic team final at the London Games, narrowly missing out on a medal and letting the world’s gymnastics powerhouses — the United States, Russia, Romania and China — know that Canada is no longer an also-ran competitor.

“It was like being first. Honestly, like being first,” said national team director Kyna Fletcher, with tears still in her eyes 20 minutes later. “To break into those top four is going to be a task, but the girls have set the bar. . . . We planned it. We were scared to talk about it. But we knew that if we did it, it was going to be amazing.”

The U.S. won gold in the final with 183.596 points. Russia captured silver with 178.530 and Romania took bronze with 176.414.

After pulling among the highest scores of the night in the floor and vault events, Canada finished with a total score of 170.804, less than four points behind China.

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Canada had never even qualified for a team final before. Tuesday’s fifth-place result was a remarkable achievement for a group of young women who looked far more composed and confident than in their first appearance at the Games two days ago.

“Our goal was to just finish top eight. But coming to the Olympics and finishing fifth, we weren’t expecting that. It’s unreal right now,” an ecstatic Victoria Moors of Cambridge, Ont., said following the final before 20,000 spectators at the North Greenwich Arena.

When the final scores appeared on the big screen, the team members — Moors, Elsabeth Black of Halifax, Dominique Pegg of Sarnia, Ont., Kristina Vaculik of Whitby, Ont., and Brittany Rogers Coquitlam, B.C. — leapt into each others arms and started crying.

They had toppled gymnastics giants like Italy and Great Britain, and had shown they could bounce back from a nervous qualifying performance on Sunday.

They did that and more. Moors and the rest of her team were already looking ahead to the next Olympics, 2016’s Games in Rio de Janeiro.

“We upset a lot of big countries. We definitely raised the bar for Canada, we’re leaving a trail for the next people, and for Rio,” she said. “We just decided to go out there and go strong.”

On Thursday, Pegg will compete in the individual all-around event, having placed 18th in Sunday’s qualifier. Teammates Rogers and Black also qualified in the individual vault event, placing seventh and eighth, respectively. They’ll compete in that event on Sunday.

Rogers said Tuesday’s performance has given her confidence as she transitions to the solo competition.

“Someone is going to win bronze on Thursday. Why can’t it be me?” she said. “(Me and Ellie) are going to rock it.”

Speaking to the media afterwards, the 17-year-old said the team gold was “redemption” and that she had worked hard to get back together mentally after Sunday’s disappointing finish.

“I knew I had to redeem myself a little bit from the disappointment of the other day,” Wieber said. “But, in the end, this was my ultimate goal — to win with this team.”

With files from Kitchener-Waterloo Record

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